In the company’s first call with analysts since 2021, the CEO said “I did not have a lot of interaction with the FCC,” during concerning the now-scuttled buyout by Standard General. “Nor did Standard General have a lot of interaction, or as much as they would have liked,” he added.
Ad Rebound In High Gear At Tegna
“Not surprisingly, all categories were up over last year, including auto; services; retail; health care; home improvement; entertainment & gambling; insurance, banking & finance; packaged goods; and education,” EVP-CFO Victoria Harker said in the quarterly conference call. “Even categories that continued to face some pressure this quarter — including entertainment, travel & tourism — were up substantially compared to the second quarter of last year.”
Station group leaders Jordan Wertlieb from Hearst Television; Jack Abernethy from Fox Television Stations; and Pat LaPlatney from Gray Television will unpack the state of TV amid enormous change at TV2025: Monetizing the Future, a virtual conference. Register here.
Tegna CEO Dave Lougee’s apology to former board nominee Adonis Hoffman over a racially charged incident has been accepted, but Hoffman is amping up criticism of the company’s response. The back-and-forth is occurring against the backdrop of a proxy battle for Tegna. The company has rebuffed acquisition overtures despite the preferences of some of its privately held investors. One stakeholder — Soo Kim’s hedge fund Standard General — is calling for a shakeup of the board and had initially nominated Hoffman for a seat.
Tegna President-CEO Dave Lougee has apologized for an incident involving former top FCC staffer and ad association executive Adonis Hoffman that the latter found disturbing and was part of the reason Hoffman withdrew his candidacy for a Tegna board of directors seat. The result is that the Tegna board hired an outside law firm to investigate the incident and human resources reviewed Lougee’s human resources file.
The annual fundraiser event raised more than $400,000 for the Broadcasters Foundation of America that provides aid to broadcasters in acute need. Also honored was Beasley Media Group’s George Beasley, who was presented with the group’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Above (l-r): Dan Mason, Broadcasters Foundation of America chairman; host Deborah Norville, Inside Edition; Lougee; and Jim Thompson, Broadcasters Foundation of America president. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)
Exclusives
The Inside Edition anchor will emcee the dinner honoring Tegna’s Dave Lougee and Beasley’s George Beasley on March 4 that will feature a performance by Nile Rodgers & Chic.
The broadcast group’s president-CEO will be honored by the Broadcasters Foundation of America at its annual gala in New York on March 4.
Executive Session | No Standing Still For Lougee And Tegna
Tegna President-CEO Dave Lougee says he will continue to look for stations that meet his performance and market criteria to the extent the FCC ownership limits allow. He also addresses the advantages of scale, automated spot buying, retrans threats, his decision to take national sales in-house, regulation, the weakness of auto spot, the strength of political spot and his hope for ATSC 3.0.
CEOs Talk Ratings, Automated Ad Biz, NFL
The top executives of four TV station groups assessed the state of the TV broadcasting business (l-r: Hearst’s Jordan Wertlieb, NBC’s Valari Staab, Tegna’s Dave Lougee and Sinclair’s Chris Ripley). Among their topics were the future of audience measurement including specific-device measurement built into the ATSC 3.0 standard; why automated buying and selling of TV ads has been so slow to be adopted; and the changing value of sports programming, especially NFL games. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)
They will be presented at the group’s Sept. 27 banquet in Washington. Rep. Marsha Blackburn to deliver the keynote address.
Tegna’s board of of directors has authorized a share repurchase program for up to $300 million of its common stock, the company said Tuesday.
The Media Institute will honor Tegna President-CEO Dave Lougee and Newseum President-CEO Jeffrey Herbst at its annual Friends & Benefactors Awards Banquet Sept. 27 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, […]
Gracia Martore retires after more than 30 years with the company. She’s succeeded as Tegna president-CEO by Dave Lougee. Cars.com begins trading on the NYSE under the symbol CARS.
The separation is expected to be completed by May 31. Tegna stockholders to receive one share of Cars.com stock for every three Tegna shares. Cars.com to pay Tegna $650 million in cash.
Lougee: Tegna Nears Deal With Virtual MVPDs
Tegna Media President Dave Lougee says that negotiations with streaming services like Sony PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now are progressing smoothly. In today’s call with analysts, he also addresses retrans revenue, possible easing of the TV ownership restrictions, the outlook for core and political advertising, its latest syndicated programming venture and its Premion OTT advertising service. He also says Tegna sold no spectrum in the incentive auction.
As the company spins off Cars.com to shareholders and evaluates “strategic alternatives” for CareerBuilder, it says broadcasting chief Dave Lougee will take over for retiring CEO Gracia Martore and Alex Vetter will become CEO of the independent Cars.com.
On NAB’s TV Agenda: Retrans, Auction, 3.0
NAB Joint Board Chairman Dave Lougee doesn’t like to make predictions about how the association’s policy initiatives will turn out, but he promises it is working hard to insure that FCC doesn’t tip the scales in favor of MVPDs in retrans negotiations, that the incentive auctions benefit sellers without harming non-sellers and that TV broadcasters have the option of moving to a superior transmission standard.
The Tegna Media exec succeeds Charles Warfield. Brian Lawlor elected TV chair and José Valle elected Radio chair.
Lougee: Embrace ‘Automated’ Spot Selling
The president of Gannett Broadcasting says broadcasters should work together to develop an automated or programmatic system to streamline the selling of their broadcast and digital inventories. “To be relevant to our local and national clients, we have to make it easy for them to buy and activate across platforms.”
Demand For Solid Syndie Fare Still Strong
Station group executives say that with growing multiplatform opportunities for stations, the need for compelling, creative syndicated programming is growing in importance. Said Post-Newsweek Stations’ Alan Frank: “No one does it like television. No one sells emotion like we do.”
